Saskatoon Puts on a Rodeo

Submitted by Glenn Wig
  

Saskatoon Downtown put on its second annual Dogie Do Rodeo (Saskatoon Style) on Saturday, October 1, at Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon. This fun filled, mock rodeo had 4 separate events which 40 teams of four people each competed in over the course of the afternoon.

The first event was the “Horse and Egg Race”. Each team member was required to ride a horse, bareback, across the stadium floor holding an egg. At the end of the stadium, you had to change riders until all 4 team members rode the horse and did not break the egg.

The second event was the “Calf Scramble”. We released 20 calves at one end of the arena and all the team members started at the opposite end. The goal was to choose a calf and convince it to come with you to the other end of the stadium and allow one team member to ride it across the finish line. It sounds a lot easier than it is and this created a quite a few laughs.

Our third event was the “Pony Express” where each team member got to ride a horse, bareback again. The goal was to deliver a “mail bag” to the post office at the end of each heat.

Our final rodeo event was our “Calf Roping”. In this event each team had to tie three ribbons on a calf of their choice. One ribbon on the tail and two on any of the calf’s legs. We ran 4 separate heats on each event until we got the teams narrowed down to the finals.

The winner of each final event received our much-coveted “Dogie Do Rodeo Belt Buckles” for each team member. It’s been a long time since I have seen so many “Urban Cowboys and Cowgirls!”

We also filled some time with a very fun event, our “Wrangler Wriggle”. We laid out about 200 pair of Wrangler jeans around the rodeo floor and invited contestants and spectators alike to meet at one end of the stadium. To compete in this event, all you needed to do was remove your pants and at the horn, run into the ring and find a pair of jeans that fit you. Here is where you separate the brave from the big talkers! Some people really shouldn’t wear thongs! Once you found a pair that fit, you were able to keep that pair of jeans. Also there were many pairs of extraordinarily large jeans that a group was able to fit into. These people received gift certificates for clothing that actually fit. If anybody is looking for some size 50+ jeans, please call me because we have some extras!

No event like this is complete until there is a great party, and our rodeo was no different. We held a western supper for everybody and then we were able to be spectators for the professional rodeo held that evening and watch the real cowboys compete. After that, everybody was invited to the Cowboy Cabaret dance where many of us stayed until the early hours of the morning.

As a fundraiser, this event was extremely successful for our Progress Club. At the end of the day, this event netted our group close to $15,000.00, which will be used to support the many charities our club holds close to our hearts.

We are already planning our third annual rodeo for next fall. Keep your Wranglers and hats close by and get ready to dust off your boots, because we can promise you that next year will be bigger and better than ever!